View full sizeSpring Grove and Twin Valley line up for the National Anthem before their state tournament game, August 3, 2013. David Bohr, PennLive

Twin Valley's Tyler Sternat allowed one
first inning run but no more as the Region 2 champion defeated Spring
Grove 6-1 in the first game of championship day at the Pennsylvania
State Legion baseball tournament on Saturday at Boyertown.

With the win, Twin Valley advanced to the National Regional in Camden, N.J. on Thursday.

Spring Grove (22-10), the Region 4
champion, was eliminated despite having a stretch of not allowing an
earned run over 19 innings.

What ended that string, and the
competitive phase of the game, was a grand slam home run by Izzack
Albright in the top of the ninth.

With Twin Valley already up 2-1 on a
pair of unearned runs, relief pitcher Dalton Hoiles walked the first
two Twin Valley batters in the ninth. Nick Spangler came in to get a
strikeout and a fielders' choice grounder around an infield single.

That set up Albright's slam to right
field. It was the first home run in the state tournament, which has
had 14 games so far.

Sternat did not allow a Spring Grove
runner to reach third after the first inning. He had six 1-2-3
frames.

“He changed
speeds, has us off balance,” Spring Grove head coach Matt Spangler
said. “He was hitting his spots.”

Spring Grove took
a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first when Spangler and Hoiles
started the game with singles. Trevor Troxel hit a sacrifice fly to
score Spangler.

“He got a couple
pitches up when we got that one run,” Spangler said. “Then he
settled down.”

Sternat finished
with six strikeouts and no walks. He allowed four hits.

Twin Valley also
helped Sternat with some good defense. In the fourth, second baseman
Billy Reardon started a double play to get the first two outs, then
centerfielder Jon Abbadusky made a diving catch to end the inning.

Shortstop Albright
started an inning ending double play in the sixth.

In the ninth,
third baseman Matt McInaw made a diving stop of a grounder to end the
game.

Spring Grove
starter Brandon Warner went seven innings without allowing an earned
run. He struck out one and walked two while allowing six hits.

“Brandon had a
gutty effort for someone who hadn't had a lot of pitching for us,”
Spangler said.

However, McInaw
reached base in the fourth on a throwing error and scored the tying
run on Travis Royer's double to right.

In the fifth,
Abbadusky got to first on an infield error and came around to score
on Ryan Plank's base hit to make it 2-1 Twin Valley.

Spangler said that
he would be stepping down as Spring Grove's head coach in order to
spend more time with his younger son.

Spring Grove had
finished the regular season as the fourth place team in the
York-Adams League. In the county playoffs, Spring Grove finished
second to Hanover, but advanced to the Region 4 Tournament because
Hanover was already in as the host. At Region 4, Spring Grove won
four straight elimination games, including a 10-9, 10 innings victory
over Hampden in the final.

At states, Spring
Grove started with two one run victories, 2-1 over Blackhawk and 3-2
over Twin Valley. Boyertown won the winners' bracket final over
Spring Grove 8-7, but Spring Grove stayed in the tournament with a
5-0 win over Downingtown on Friday night.